Unit 38. Have you? / Are you? / Don't you? etc.

In conversation, you can say have you? / is it? / can't he? etc. to show that you are interested or surprised. You can use these verbs in this way:

am/is/are   was/were   have/has   do/does/did   can   will.

- ‘You're late.’   ‘Oh, am I? I'm sorry.’
- ‘I was ill last week.’   ‘Were you? I didn't know that.’
- ‘It's raining again.’   ‘Is it? It was sunny five minutes ago.’

- ‘Bill can't drive.’   ‘Can't he? I didn't know that.’
- ‘I'm not hungry.’   ‘Aren't you? I am.’
- ‘Sue isn't at work today.’   ‘Isn't she? Is she ill?’

Use do/does for the Present Simple, did for the Past Simple:
- ‘I speak four languages.’   ‘Do you? Which ones?’
- ‘Tom doesn't eat meat.’   ‘Doesn't he? Does he eat fish?’
- ‘Linda got married last week.’   ‘Did she? Really?’

Question tags

You can use … have you? /… is it? / … can't she? etc. at the end of a sentence. These ‘endings’ are question tags (= mini-questions).

A positive sentence → a negative question tag
A negative sentence → a positive question tag

*positive → negative*
It's a beautiful day, isn't it? She lives in London, doesn't she? You closed the window, didn't you? Those shoes are nice, aren't they? Tom will be at home tomorrow, won't he?		Yes, it's lovely. Yes, that's right. Yes, I think so. Yes, very nice. Yes, I think so.

*negative → positive*
That isn't your car, is it? You don't smoke, do you? You haven't met my mother, have you? You won't be late, will you?		No, my car is white. No, never. No, I haven't. No, don't worry.

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